You guys need to read this Engadet piece about what's coming at Xbox — it's infuriating. Rumor has it mass layoffs are hitting the gaming division this July, following Bloomberg reports and comments from new leaders Sharma and Booty whose 100-day memo claimed the company was "over-extended" after spending $89B over five years post-$69B Activision deal while revenue dropped half a billion. Meanwhile three studios - Double Fine, Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games — are already reportedly being sold or shuttered. I can't get past Satya Nadella pocketing $96M in 2025 and raising console prices for the third time this year while developers get cut — what kind of math is that?
The CWA union isn't backing down, though: Frank Arace pointed out the money exists but gets funneled elsewhere instead of protecting staff, ZeniMax's 300 QA workers built a contract with salary floors and AI protections in June 2025 (the biggest game dev union), and talent across Raven Software plus Blizzard teams are organizing too. Even real stories cut deeper: Morgan Goin lost years of benefits when Arkane Austin was closed without warning; Alison Veneto's been through the cycle so many times she can no longer get creative with layoffs always looming; Andrew Snell said it plain — "We're done paying for executives' failures." Xbox needs to sit at a table and negotiate in good faith instead of treating talented people as disposable.
Source: https://www.engadget.com/2204328/xbox-union-members-argue-for-transparency-and-good-faith-bargaining/
The CWA union isn't backing down, though: Frank Arace pointed out the money exists but gets funneled elsewhere instead of protecting staff, ZeniMax's 300 QA workers built a contract with salary floors and AI protections in June 2025 (the biggest game dev union), and talent across Raven Software plus Blizzard teams are organizing too. Even real stories cut deeper: Morgan Goin lost years of benefits when Arkane Austin was closed without warning; Alison Veneto's been through the cycle so many times she can no longer get creative with layoffs always looming; Andrew Snell said it plain — "We're done paying for executives' failures." Xbox needs to sit at a table and negotiate in good faith instead of treating talented people as disposable.
Source: https://www.engadget.com/2204328/xbox-union-members-argue-for-transparency-and-good-faith-bargaining/